Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1887-12-23
THE TARIFF.
Mt. JACKSON, VA,
December ~, 1887.

back from seeing plain and simple
facts. But ! hope whoever may
read this little article will read it
over aud over again until he is con
WINGED that high protective tariff
is the one great thing needful for
the prosperity OF the people Of the
United States.
There is no class Of people who
will not be benefited by a high pro-
tective tariff on all articles that can
be produced in this country. 1t
VIII give employment to a large
class of people who would be COM
PEELED, under n low tariff, to engage
in farming, which would soon be
Oyer.dOne and then certain ruin
would fall on the farming interest,
which is nearly the case at present ;
but It's present condition Is caused
by extravaganza and a poor demand
for grain-which cannot be charged
to the tariff.
The present system of tariff has
encouraged industries and inven-
tons to that extent that we can
Duy nearly everything that is pro-
duced here for e-fOurth less than
We could before the war, and the
farmers and every other class of
people can live at much less ex.
pense than they could before the
war. Every reasonable man who
will think, without prejudice, will
see what the tariff has done. 1t
has cheapened nearly everything
that is made here in this country
to about the lowest figures, and
paid of all the war debt that is due
and optional; it has enabled the
government to take the internal
tax off the necessaries of life which
made us all happy, and it further
enables the government to take all
the internal tax off (which might
make some too happy for a while
and put the whole country on n
carOusaI it has put us in a better
condition now than we were before
the war notwithstanding the heavy
war debt ; it has borne the best of
fruit without saping the soil it has
produced a big surplus which can
be returned to the soil to good ad.
vantage by applying it to schools
and other much needed purposes
without calling it extravaganza
We want education; Ignorance
will never protect free govern
ment.
without having an eye to charity
for people of other parts of the
world it would he better for the
people of the United States to
build a wall between themselves
and all the rest of mankind,-lt
would be the quickest way to a
perfect independence.
st would put capital and labor to
work and create facilities for pro-
duclng all neediul articles cheaper
than they can be produced any
where else, and at the same time
give employment to all with flour.
ishing commerce between the states
our industries would not be discour-
aged nor suffer from panic by for
eign glut. If there is anything to
be made give our own idle people
chance to make il, and especially
when they can produce it as cheap
as it can be done anywhere else.-
There is no dOubt about our being
able to compete with all other ma
tons, because they have the ex'
pense Of importation to bear.
Uncle Sam has q large farm and
a big family and some of his chill
dren are very poor because they
haye no land and nothing to de-
pend on but what little work they
can get, so you see it is not policy
for Uncle Sam to have rs work
done by other people.
Listen not to President Ceye
lands narrow views spun out in
language calculated to deceive per
sons who have not given the tariff
questions a broad and expanded
view. The President has carried
his sophistical barangue so tar as
to use mathematical demolstra.
tons to prove that the tariff is
burden which ought to be removed.
There are many Of us who have
more brain than the president, but
we lack confidence in our own judg-
ment and suffer ourselves to be
lead by men who have by luck at
tanned high places. 1t is not al
ways that the educated politicians
are right, because democrats are
educated to one set of ideas, and
the republicans to another, and
each hunt arguments only in favor
of their own ideas and against the
ideas of the other. Those fellows,
can be very appropriately called,
educated party slaves, or FOOLS
as you please.
The presidents narrow view of
the sheep and wool question is a
fair sample OF his fitness for presi.
dent, and his party bias. He can't
see that a high tariff on wool would
encourage the raising of sheep to
that extent that wool would become
so cheap that everybody could at
ford to sleep warm.
Even if it were true that we can
buy cheaper when tie tariff is of,
that don't argue that we cannot
produce it as cheap as any other
people. AS long as our people can
produce it as cheap as other peO-
pie, it is right to encourage them
in doing so, and if we don't we will
never get ont of our infancy. Per
cent. or mathematical arguments
are of no use. Let Uncle Sam learn
his children to do their own work
Al II